Sparks
by ELECTRACUTED
Summary: A complete rewrite of the Twilight saga, including: *no misogynistic representations of women! *no masochistic males! *no sparkly vampires! *more action and plot-line! *realistic LGBT characters! *other supernaturals! *some drastically changed characters! *new characters! *a more indepth, creative world!
1. Preface

Death had never been something that had scared me. Even after all the things that had happened recently, I still felt like I could stare into Death's face without flinching.

Perhaps if I'd never moved to Forks, none of this would happen. I'd live a normal life, away from this sweet, sweet madness. Get a job, meet a human guy, get married, have kids. I'd be average once more.

But then I would never have met him. I wouldn't have seen the beauty that was hidden in this world, or the danger that lay subtly beside it.

I looked into Death's stony face and his eyes gleamed with happiness as he moved forward to kill me.


	2. Chapter 1 - First Sight (INCOMPLETE)

As my father drove me to the airport, a pleasant summer breeze drifted in through the window, playing with my hair. I leant back in my chair, trying to relax, even though my mind was racing.

I was on my way to Forks, a tiny little town hidden in northwest Washington. Since the age of fourteen, I'd been forced to live there every summer with my mother, Renée, and I hated it each time. My mother ran her house like a prison, with strict rules and harsh punishments for miscreants. Even the weather forecast in Forks was awful – cloudy with moderately high chances of rain. Every. Single. Day. For a sun-seeking creature like me, the prospect of spending more than one month in such a dismal place had terrified me. I'd pleaded, cried and begged to not return there, but my father, Charlie, had insisted I visited her each summer. A few months ago, he had decided that I was to stay there for a whole school year with my mother in order to, in his words, 'sort me out.' According to him, I'd began to gain too much of an attitude, so I needed a 'firm hand' to put me back in my place. Personally, I felt like he was being too much of a traditionalist, but it didn't matter, did it? Because, in his eyes, I'm just some bratty, spoilt teenage girl whose incapable of respecting authority.

"Bella," my father said to me in a level voice. "Please don't be angry with me, honey." I replied to his request by turning away from him.

"I'm just trying to do what's best for you, okay?"

"Best for me, or what's best for you?" I snapped back. He looked shocked.

"W-what do you mean?"

"Oh God, it's so _obvious_ that you wanted me out of that house as soon as possible."

"Bella, you know that's not—"

"Dad, I'm not stupid," I said, trying to remain calm. "You guys have been trying to get me out of that house for months now. Don't dress this up as what it's not."

His lack of a response told me that that was the truth. Charlie looked at me with a pained expression on his face, and I felt guilty for hurting him in this way. But I had to let him know that I hated the decision he had made for me.

We stayed silent throughout the rest of the journey, the heated atmosphere lingering all the while. After what had seemed like an age, the car pulled up to the airport parking. I rapidly opened the car door and opened the car's trunk to get out my jet-black suitcase. Charlie came to my side and attempted to grasp the suitcase from me.

"Here, Bells, let me do that for y-"

"It's fine Dad, I can do it myself." I eventually managed to haul it out, but the seal broke and the contents became littered on the floor. I sighed heavily. This wasn't what I needed right now. Charlie crouched down and helped me to shove my belongings back in the case. My purse lay open on the ground and I stared at it as I picked it up. There were two photos inside; one of my mom and me, one of Charlie and his new partner, Phil. They'd met soon after my dad had left Renée and were enamoured with each other. Phil and Charlie planned to tie the knot soon, as soon as it was legal to do so. I liked Phil, he made my dad happy, but I didn't fit in with their idea of a family. They wanted the typical American family, with two happy kids, living in a gorgeous house in the suburbs. A pale, stroppy teenager didn't fit in with that equation.

As soon as all my stuff was safely back into the case, me and Charlie both stood up. Neither of us were good at goodbyes, especially not on vicious terms like this.

"So I guess this is...err...goodbye, then, Bells," he said clumsily.

"Bye then, Dad," I responded, looking at the ground.

"You sure you don't want me to help you inside?"

"No Dad, it's okay. You go back to Phil." I knew that jibe must've hurt him from the deep sigh that followed.

"Look, Bells, we're not sending you to your mom's because we don't want you. It's just...we think you'll benefit from a bit of hard discipline, alright?"

"Yeah, sure, whatever," I muttered. "See you later, Dad." I began to walk away from him and towards the Departures section of the airport.

"Ring me when you get there, Bells. Or e-mail me, it's up to you."

"Okay Dad." I looked back and waved at him, forcing myself to smile. He waved and smiled back at me as I walked into the airport.

The flight itself was pretty boring. I soon arrived in Forks, greeted again by the abysmal weather. As I walked out of the Arrivals lounge, I saw my mom waiting for me in her police cruiser. Great. What a way to draw attention.

"Bella, honey, you're here!" She gave me one of her strong hugs and I forced yet another smile upon my face. Renée released me from her iron grip and took my suitcase out of my hands.

"So how was the flight?" she asked, as we got into the cruiser.

"It was…alright, I guess. Food was kinda bland."

"Aww, too bad!" Despite being a very serious policewoman, she was also annoyingly superficial. Renée used to be an actor before becoming a police officer, so she had a tendency to overreact.

I pretended to listen to my mother talking about her life in Forks whilst we drove towards her house, nodding and agreeing at appropriate times. My mind was travelling faster than the car as I began to think about the new school.

Forks High School was a scary place to me, to say the least. There were hundreds of students there, none of whom I knew. I probably knew some of them by last name because of my mom, but I'd never met any of them. My stomach swam with butterflies as I began to think about joining such a place. What if I didn't fit in? What if I never made any friends, or worse, made lots of enemies? At least back in Phoenix I had had a few friends. Michelle, my best friend, had been reasonably upset when I told her that I was leaving for Forks. I promised to Skype her every day, but I knew that she'd be over me pretty quickly.

Thankfully, we arrived home soon enough. I took my suitcase out of the trunk and went to the front door. Renée took out her house keys and unlocked the door, and I bathed myself in the warmth of the house.

The house hadn't changed much since my last visit. The surreal paintings that previously hung on the wall when my parents lived together were still missing, replaced by pictures of beautiful landscapes. The only change that I could see was the addition of a small mirror on one of the walls. I had a sneaking suspicion, however, that if I looked underneath it, I would find the mark left by the plate my mother had thrown at my father when he had come out to her.

I traipsed up the stairs to my bedroom, amidst the incessant questions by my mother. It was clear to see that she hadn't touched it in my six-month absent. Old pictures of my friends in Phoenix were curling on the faded green walls and my closet was still in a mess. I walked to the computer and turned it on, doing a little more research about Forks High School. After all, surely it was good to do know about the place that would be my earthly hell?

It was early evening when my mom called me down for dinner. I rushed down quickly, my stomach rumbling loudly in response. The cardboard-tasting airplane food had done little to satiate my hunger. I sat down at the dinner table and began wolfing down the spaghetti bolognese waiting for me, under Renée's steely looks..

"Calm down, would you, Bella?" she said sternly.

"I'm hungry, Mom." That earned a cold glare from Renée.

"So are you ready to join your new school?"

"Uh, a little bit. I'm kinda nervous about joining so late in the year…and I don't really anybody here, either" Spring break was a mere seven months away, which had served as another of my reasons as to why I should stay in Phoenix.

"Oh, honey, it's going to be fine," she said sympathetically. "What about Jacob Black? You used to play with him when you guys were younger."

I grunted noncommittally. I had vague memories of making mudpies with Jacob many years ago. There was no doubt that, like me, he would've changed significantly since then.

"Or perhaps the Cullens? They're a nice family, one of them is bound to talk to you."

"Who are they?" I asked, looking up from my food.

"Oh, well, there's seven of them that moved here recently. The kids are in your year, I think - Emmett, Rosalie, Jasper, Alice and Edward. Their parents, Esme and Carlisle, adopted them all when they were pretty young, so they're virtually like a family now. They keep themselves to themselves, none of us on the force have ever had an issue with them. From what I've seen, all the kids are quite nice. Decent folk."

I thought about this for a second. They sounded like kind people and the fact that they had my mom's support could only mean that they had passed her strict tests; meaning there would be no issue with me talking to them.

At that moment, the phone rang and my mom rushed over to answer it. Guessing from her overly-dramatised laugh, it was presumably one of Renée's many male crushes. After my father had left her, lots of men suddenly began flirting and talking to her. She seemed to enjoy it, from what I could see. I knew that she would be talking on the phone for a while, so I quickly devoured my food and rushed upstairs to continue my research.

After a quarter of an hour, I became bored with the research. The high school seemed just as indomitable as before, as the research had in no way helped to eliminate my feeling of dread about going there tomorrow. I decided to try and relax my mind by reading. Before I knew it, it was almost 9PM, so I closed the book and placed on the end table, near to the lamp, then went to have a shower.

I heard a rapid beeping sound when I had stepped out of the shower, so I swiftly threw on my nightclothes and went to see what it was. It appeared to be coming from my computer. By the time I had walked over, the beeping had stopped. There was a tiny notification in the corner of the screen that said '1 Missed Skype Call'. I had a look to see who it had been and gasped in shock – it had been Michelle. My heart warmed a little bit; so she did actually care about me after all! I smirked, then turned back to the washroom when I noticed something had changed. The book that had been on the table by my bed had been moved. It was now open and towards the edge, almost falling off the side. I walked over and picked the book back up again, noticing that the opened pages were crinkled as if someone had placed the book down in a hurry. Renée had no reason to look at my book – besides, she was still on the phone – so why had the book suddenly moved? I knew that I hadn't placed it like that, as I was very careful about damaging pages in my books. I kept a mental note to ask Renée if she had moved it, then went back to dry my hair. It was soon time to sleep, so I crawled into the warmth of the bed and tried to stop my incessant worries. What if nobody talked to me tomorrow? What if I went to the wrong class? What if, what if, what if? I took a deep breath and let my heartbeat slow down. There was no point worrying about it now. What would be, would be. I needed to get as much sleep as possible to make sure I was alert for tomorrow, and worrying about school would not assist me in that regard.

I woke up in the morning fresh and alert. A huge pit suddenly formed in my stomach, however, as I remembered the prospects of the day ahead of me. I grudgingly walked down the stairs to find a note on the kitchen table that from Renée that said _"Just had a call about an incident last night. Cereal's in the cupboard above the oven. Love you, Renée. xxx"_ I walked over to the cupboard mentioned and pulled out a box of my favourite cereal, poured it into a bowl with some milk and began eating. Thoughts and worries about the day swirled around my head, but I ignored them. Worrying would only cause unnecessary stress now.

I began pulling on a green chequered top and some jeans when I suddenly realised – who was going to drop me off at school? Renée wouldn't be able to take me if she was working. I groaned as I realised the only option – I would have to walk. It was freezing outside due to the recent snowfall, so I was rather annoyed about this trek to school. There was nothing I could do about it, so I went to the front door and began my walk.

However, as soon as I stepped out, I realised that I wouldn't have to walk. There in front of me was brown, dingy truck. It was slightly battered rounded the edge, but it looked like a sturdy-enough truck. Walking closer, I realised that there was a note on the windscreen. It was from Renée, again, and said _"Jacob had to do some repairs and he only returned the truck this morning when you were asleep. Sorry I forgot to mention it, I wanted the truck to be a surprise! Keys are in the kitchen drawer. Have fun on your first day! Love you, Mom. xxx"_ I smiled at this kind gesture. I would no longer have to face the biting cold with this truck. Going back in the house, I found the keys where Renée had said that they had been. I silently thanked her and Jacob as I entered the warmth of the truck, then began driving to school.

Pulling up to the high school, I noticed that it looked very different to my old one in Phoenix. Whilst that had been an aesthetically pleasing school, Forks High School was the complete opposite. The main building was a huge gray eyesore, and it was there that I pulled the truck up to. I found a parking spot near the entrance, and since there appeared to be nobody around, I walked to the bench by the Reception desk, whipped out he book from last night and began reading again. I was deeply engrossed it when I heard a voice next to me.

"Interesting book, huh?" I gasped in surprise at the intrusion and looked up to see who it was. It was a boy with blonde-brown hair and a cute, boyish face. He was looking at me, smiling in a friendly manner.

"I…um, yeah, it is," I stammered. His interruption of my reading made me realise that the rest of the school had already arrived, shouting and laughing as they marched into the building.

"Sorry for disturbing you – I'm Mike Newton." He spoke confidently.

"Hi, I'm Bella Swan." I attempted to radiate his confidence back to him.

"Oh right, the new girl. I thought so, I'm sure I would've remembered your face before!" He laughed a soft, joyful laugh and I laughed too, though I wasn't too sure why.

"Have you got your stuff yet?"

"Stuff?" I raised my eyebrow at him. Then I remembered. I had yet to get my timetable and other essential things for my first day from Reception. I had been so deep into my book that I'd completely forgot. I checked my watch – lessons were to start in five minutes.

"Oh shoot! Sorry Mike, I gotta go!" I quickly threw my book back into my bag and swung the door to the Reception open, leaving Mike on the bench staring at me.

I calmly breathed in and walked to the front desk, hoping that it wasn't too late for me to get my timetable. I was a stickler for being prompt and it annoyed me that I had been so careless on my first day.

A plump woman with brown, curly hair and glasses typed away at the keyboard on the computer, not noticing my presence.

"Hi, Miss, my name's Bella Swan and-"I began.

"Ah, Miss Swan!" she interrupted. "Yes, we've been expecting you. Here's your timetable and map of the school." She passed me two small sheets of paper with the details on them. "If you have any problems at all, please feel free to come and talk to me." She beamed at me and I gave her a quick smile back, studying my timetable as I left.


End file.
